Punches and Punchlines
Punches and Punchlines
The Sweet Science of Women's Boxing
Boxing's dual identity was on full display this weekend as Netflix's groundbreaking all-female card delivered exceptional entertainment while a questionable pay-per-view left fans wondering why they'd part with their money. The contrast couldn't have been more striking.
Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano concluded their historic trilogy with Taylor securing a legitimate victory after two previous controversial decisions. Though starting painfully slow – the hosts jokingly scored round one "0-0" – the fight eventually delivered meaningful action between two pioneers who have transformed women's boxing. Meanwhile, Edgar Berlanga learned the harsh lesson that trash talk requires skill to back it up, as Hamza Shiraz systematically dismantled him despite Berlanga's pre-fight antics that included mocking Oscar De La Hoya with women's lingerie at press conferences.
The Netflix card featured several standout performances, including the action-packed Skye Nicolson versus Raven Mercado bout that showcased non-stop offensive exchanges. Shadasia Green's victory over Savannah Marshall demonstrated how speed can neutralize technical prowess, while Trinica Johnson delivered a one-sided beating that had viewers uncomfortable with the mismatch. Even Shakur Stevenson – often criticized for his defensive style – delivered an entertaining performance against William Zepeda, though he later admitted he'd return to his less fan-friendly approach in future fights.
Looking ahead, while Manny Pacquiao's return from retirement generates mild curiosity, the upcoming Usyk versus Dubois II rematch has hardcore fans genuinely excited. As our hosts put it, "If Pacquiao's comeback is Easter, Usyk-Dubois is Christmas." The weekend showcased boxing's capacity for both brilliance and frustration – moments of skill and heart alongside questionable business decisions that continue to plague the sport.
Ready to dive deeper into boxing analysis that doesn't pull punches? Subscribe to Punches and Punchlines for weekly breakdowns of everything happening in the sweet science – delivered with both expertise and humor.
Welcome to Punches and Punchlines, where we break down the best in boxing with a sense of humor. And now your hosts, fritz and Franco.
Speaker 2:Welcome back everybody. We had a fun weekend of boxing boxing. Thank you for joining us for this episode of punches and punchlines here, always with my good friend, franco hi. He had uh, we had some fun going on this weekend, franco. There was free card on well free if you're a subscriber to netflix on friday, an all-female card on fr. And then there was a pay-per-view that I didn't understand why there was any price tag attached to it, so I didn't pay for it, but I certainly watched some of the full fights that were on that card, some of the highlights. I got some opinions on that card too, so I'm ready to dive into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really liked the Netflix card. I thought it was well done. Also, the streaming didn't crash, unlike that Mike Tyson fight. That they did before. But I guess the numbers were huge for this all women's card, which is great. I think it had like six million people tuned in to watch it and then, like you said, the other one, I wasn't even going to watch the highlights. That's how little I cared about the pay-per-view. But because you told me that you jumped into it, I went and I searched for as much as I could without paying any money to the people that were involved, and kind of glad that I didn't pay any money. So, yeah, the Netflix card I thought was definitely really good. So, yeah, let's go ahead and jump on into it.
Speaker 2:Tell us all the time you can't play boxing. We prove them wrong every episode. With this segment we call playing boxing. For anybody that's new to the show, welcome. And this segment is brought to you by the people over at ZipX Toothpicks. Go over to ZipXToothpickscom, enter the code PUNCH10, and you will save 10% on your nicotine-infused toothpicks. It helps you stop smoking. Or, like they say on their packaging smoke less, zip more. You know that is that really. That's their catchphrase. I think it says zip, uh. Let me see, I got a package right here in front of me. It says uh, zip more, smoke less. So okay, even if you don't want to uh quit completely, you know you can uh. You know, just have these to tide you over. Uh, the the place I found these awesome. It was like at the airport where you got those delays you can't sneak out. That's definitely tied you over.
Speaker 1:So it's nice to have uh with him I, I like that they're, I like that they're trying to tie in some kind of a name to it, like how people, how vaping became a verb. They're like zipping you know, yeah, let's do it they're gonna have, uh, you know, like weed one soon, and then everybody will be out out there zipping, and then, uh, they'll be complaining about the kids walking around with toothpicks in their mouth I love it.
Speaker 2:I think you're right, and now I know that we off mic. We talked about starting with the friday, but I got more positive to say about friday, so maybe we'll save the best for last and just get through the highlights that we did watch on the uh pay-per-view, okay, where uh it was headlined by berlinga versus shiraz, but before that fight happened, did you see david morel fight where he started fucking around and like enjoying himself? I did not see that one and like in the middle of his talking he got knocked down like almost through the ropes. Oh no.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He ended up winning the fight. You know this was his first fight after losing to David Benavidez, but yeah, it's worth. It's worth watching at least those highlights, because the old fuck around and find out he found out that the guy had enough power to put him on his ass. He came back and was able to win that fight, but it definitely wasn't time to start celebrating yet.
Speaker 1:You know when the final bell rings, then you can start your celebrating I do like I don't know if you've seen the videos, the compilation videos, where it's like when trash talking goes wrong. Oh yeah, oh, I love, I love those videos. I don't care if it's one that I've seen, all of it already. I will stop every single time. So, yeah, maybe this one will get added to it. I think the main event fight might get added to that, but absolutely I was gonna say, check that later you could put a pin in that, because uh there was a lot of trash talking that went wrong.
Speaker 2:But in the other fight that was worth noting, williams apata took on shakur stevenson in, probably because shakur stevenson was on this pay-per-view. I was like there's no way I'm paying for this because I can I can hardly watch this dude box to begin with, and he put on an actual fun fight the stuff that we were used to seeing on espn before he became a runner. It was actual fun to watch these highlights. You know he beat william zapata handily. He was outlanding him out, punching him. It was a complete domination by him and william zapata is a really good fighter. Yeah, and he got his ass kicked. I just read this.
Speaker 2:Before we went on air they asked you know, secure, like, oh, this was kind of a break from your previous fights. Is this a style that you're going to carry going forward? He said hell, no, he's like I was hit way too much. Uh, I'm gonna go back to, uh, not getting hit as much. I'm like, uh, the one. I'm glad that I just watched the highlights because if he's going to go back to the old ways, I'm going to go back to my old ways of not watching because I don't need to see that shit. It was just not entertaining, but we're going to focus on this fight. That was entertaining and he beat a really really good boxer at 135, kept his belt, so good for him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, william Cepeda is a really good fighter. Both of these guys were undefeated going into the fight. If anything, this should have been the headline fight like this should have been the main event, not what actually was the main event, because I know both of these fighters and they're both great fighters main event garbage fighters like I'm not necessarily garbage fighters, I take that back, but one of them for sure shouldn't be main eventing anything, and the fact that it was was weird. Having it be a pay-per-view was also weird. I can't think of what his name is. Turkey, right? Yeah, turkey Al-Khalif. Yeah, he was the one that was in charge of this, so I could see him trying to get some of his money back because he's been throwing so much money into it.
Speaker 1:I will say this from watching like the full card highlights and whatnot, he was in the front row for most of the fights. Like I kind of like when you get somebody that is a mark for whatever thing that they're doing, like they're a fan to like. When you get team owners that are fans. Or when you get somebody who starts up a company, like Tony Khan, who I love, who started AEW, he wanted to start up his own wrestling company. So when I see people pouring money, like their own personal money, into something but it's not just a business investment, like they're also fans I kind of like that a little bit. It makes me like him a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Does he sometimes not pay attention? Or he's doing something else? Sure, but also at least he was there. Like, how many fights have we watched where you start the card, you turn it on and there's nobody in the crowd, right, he'll still be there, right there in the front row, and it's like good for him. And and it was something that I wanted to note that I noticed just from the highlights, which, uh, yeah, kind of cool to see him being into it. I hope he was disappointed in that.
Speaker 2:Main event, though well, he definitely wasn't disappointed in the main event because shiraz is his guy, like that's true, the guy that he's been pushing along and, you know, recognized early that there was some talent there and now he's the mandatory for whoever wins canelo versus crawford. You know he's the mandatory for that. So, yeah, he's definitely back shiraz from the beginning and started putting him on some big cards when nobody had seen him before. But you know, we saw in this fight that he's not out of his depth. At the upper limits of 168 he was quiet and calm and just throughout this whole build-up he hardly said anything and berlinga talked so much shit that he was gonna, you know, just destroy him and knock him out from a guy that we used to root for in berlinga to a guy that we just got sick of listening to him talk and then not back it up in the ring. You know, it's one thing like if you can walk the walk and talk the talk, talk all the shit you want, you know, but when you're you're not backing it up in the ring, people get tired of hearing you talk. So it was pretty funny to watch him just kind of get toyed with by canelo and then, in this fight just get destroyed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he gets knocked down twice in the fourth round, and the first time he did his you know signature after a knockdown, where he bangs his glover together like, oh I, I just slipped or I messed up on that one. The second one was a lot less convincing. Yeah, he's like, oh I'm, I'm getting pummeled. And then in the fifth round it was just all over good for Shiraz. I don't know if he'll actually get the winner of Crawford versus Canelo, but that's what Turkey wants, and he's got the money to make that shit happen.
Speaker 1:So first things first with Edgar Berlanga, it is a classic example of not being tested yet and somebody believing all the hype that everybody around them is saying, like you know, if your guy wins, if your friend does something good, you tell them like you're going to be champ one day. You know, we love you. But it's another thing to just believe that it's going to happen without actually being tested. Berlanga was, you know, kind of a product of the COVID period and when he came out of it and started fighting real fighters didn't look as good anymore. He wasn't knocking people out like he was, you know, during the bubble. So for Hamza Shiraz to come in, I would love to say that, edgar Belinga, maybe it's an age thing, he's young and he's still figuring it out, but Shiraz is two years younger than him, yeah, he's 28. So he's not a kid anymore. No, kid anymore. No, no, he's not.
Speaker 1:And I don't want to say it was embarrassing, but it was embarrassing. Like, especially he said the glove tapping. I was thinking like, is that at this point, is this just like? Uh, you know, like when you you kill an insect and the legs are still moving, like this is just he's tapping his hands together as a reaction to getting his head smashed in because he doesn't know what else to do. I heard he's at home still tapping his gloves together right now. That's how bad it was. He got wrecked. It was so satisfying to see him get wrecked, but also kind of knew that he wasn't going to do well in this fight. Did you see the stuff that was going viral with him where he was going back and forth with Oscar De La Hoya at the press conference? Yes, why are you showing up with props? First of all, prop comics suck.
Speaker 1:No offense to any comic friends that are out there. But he pulled out like little panties and like was basically making fun of Oscar De La Hoya having a past of dressing up in women's lingerie, and which I can't stand, oscar De La Hoya either. So for him to be focused on that like. Even I was like why are you, why are you doing this? You should be focused on this fight and instead he made a circus of the whole thing and then, you know, finished it off with a nice clown act when he got in the ring because dude looked terrible, but it was so satisfying.
Speaker 1:it was so satisfying to watch him just get wrecked and then again, you know we see this all the time. They stopped the fight and he's like what? And?
Speaker 1:it's like your eyes are going in two different directions right now. What are you talking about? You looked ridiculous. It was satisfying to watch the bad guy get beat up and I loved every second of it, especially with Berlinga biting people and other nonsense. Like for this to be the way that. That this happens. He does not need to be at the top of any cards for a long, long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I'm not saying the dude's career is over, but he's got to start rebuilding. Because this is two losses in a row. I believe maybe he found some interim fight in between Canelo and this. That I'm not. I'm not remembering, but two losses in a row. I'd like to see maybe a reclamation project for both people coming off losses. Let's see him versus plant. All right, that's a good fight at 168, I would be. I would tune in for that.
Speaker 1:I would hope that plant would kill him I would hope to. But well, not kill.
Speaker 2:But he's come yeah, and his career, yeah, he's coming off a loss. So, as the berlanga, now I could see them as a co-main event on something, but that's for the promoters to decide what's next. Overall, I still I'm still glad that I didn't spend any money on this, this card, but it looks like there was some fun mixed in. So at least they the people that did buy got some of their money's worth. But back to the Friday night.
Speaker 2:I searched for the undercard, you know, like the part that wasn't televised on Netflix, and all I found was one of the earlier fights, trinica johnson versus shoretta metcalf, and this was for undisputed bantamweight. I guess this was the. I don't. I couldn't tell whether it was the first undisputed bantamweight champion or just the first undisputed bantamweight champion from australia, but trinica johnson put on a clinic where she was just beating the shit, uh, shoretta metcalf. I don't know if shoretta metcalf is good, but she didn't look good in this fight. This was a one-sided ass beating where I was even telling my wife, who was sitting in the room with me, like it's. It's uncomfortable to watch when it's not even close to an even fight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this looked like a champ versus a pro debut. That's how lopsided. This one was the fact that metcalf at the end of it was like well, why are you stopping it? Because nobody can watch you get your ass kicked anymore, like I think her, her mama had to call a bit like you gotta stop this, like they're hurting my baby. And everybody was relieved when this was stopped because there wasn't a single part of a round that metcalf was winning. Trinica johnson was just beating the shit out of her. She looked fantastic. So if shiretta metcalf is any good, then shirika johnson is fantastic. This was my introduction to trinica johnson and I hope to see more of her yeah, she looked really good.
Speaker 1:She's 10 years younger than Metcalf is. Also, I don't know if you saw, but Metcalf came out with like a crown. She was wearing this big, you know ornate crown on her head. I wish she would have kept it on, but like they would have had to have really Bobby pinned it into her hair, just it would have made the exaggeration of her head getting snapped back from all the punches a little bit more entertaining. Maybe would have added a little bit to it. But, yeah, sharnika, johnson looked really good.
Speaker 1:Shred and metcalf was just out of her league. She didn't look like she was on the same level as johnson and aside from that, they went for nine rounds. Now, granted, the women only do two minute rounds, so you know that helps a little bit with being able to catch your breath a little bit sooner. But yeah, they stopped it after nine. You know, if the ref wanted to stop it could have stopped it beforehand, because it was just the same thing Every round. Totally could have stopped it or just let it go one more round. It's only two minutes.
Speaker 1:Let her go out on her shield, uh, you know. If it is on a stretcher, uh, you know, I'm sure the hospital will be able to fix her up. Modern medicine has come a long way. I get it, it's the US. We don't have the best medical system. But yeah, let her go out on her shield. I see the argument both ways. Obviously, the referee and the doctors are in the ring. They get a firsthand look, nice up close. But me watching it two days know, like two days later, because I also could not find it. Yeah, whatever, like let her go out on her shield, but you know, obviously the doctors have a better call at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:From the fifth round on I was like you got to stop this fight. So I'm just glad that it finally came. You know, after the six, I think the doctors talked to her. Maybe it was the seventh, but they were looking for a reason to pull the plug. They finally just said you know, we can't watch this anymore and I'm I'm glad that it was stopped. Yeah, you know, we've said before better around early than, or a second early than a second too late.
Speaker 2:So now, what was a great fight and it was not great because Scottney was clearly better than Mercado, but the Scottney versus Mercado was at least you could see the Mercado belonged in the ring with Scottney, for sure. She just wasn't as good. Scottney was landing like hooks left and right at will. Mercado was eating more hooks. I've seen hungry fanfish that don't eat as many hooks as Mercado was doing. It was like a feeding frenzy where you, when you drop your bobber and your hook in front of some blue gill, that's how many. That's how many hooks she was eating. It was incredible that she was even able to stand up to it and make it to the final bell. But this was a pretty dominant fight for Ellie Scott.
Speaker 1:I really liked this fight. It it was. I don't know what I was expecting, but, like, maybe it was the whole madison square garden setting, but something made it feel like it was a bigger deal than it actually was, but also tons of action, was it? Yeah, you know, like they were, both of them were just going at it. They were beating the hell out of each other. It was aggressive, it was fun. If anything, this might have been one of my more favorite fights from the card just because it was so much action. Also, you know, luckily it went the right way. But I've really liked this fight. I don't know that anything different could have been done, I don't know. I think Scott and he just kind of took advantage of the situation and laid it all out there, but it was a fun fight. I advantage of the situation and and laid it all out there, but it was a fun fight.
Speaker 1:I really like this one.
Speaker 1:I think it was the best fight of the card, did exactly what I wanted it to do and there was nothing weird.
Speaker 1:Like yeah, it drives me especially like as a girl soccer coach for high schoolers for the past 24 seasons, as a as a father of two daughters, I hate when I watch a women's fight and then there's something weird that happens that gives people an excuse to be able to like shit on it and it's like it has to be perfect. It has to be better than perfect, because with a guy's fight it can be garbage and people come up with excuses to like justify why it's garbage. But women's fights, if they're not great, then all of a sudden people start nitpicking and getting shitty. And with this one it was just a good fight. Like if this was two dudes going at it, people would have been like oh, this was like. You know, this is what we want, and and to see the women step up on this card and just have good boxing without bullshit was beautiful. So it was almost like like I was proud of them, like of how did, and this fight was a great example of that.
Speaker 2:Without a doubt, it was action-packed and just because you made me think of it, I was. Chantel Cameron was on this card, all right, okay, I searched everywhere on the internet for highlights of it. I couldn't find it anywhere. Now, chantel Cameron, her only loss is to katie taylor, and that's where she lost all, all of her undisputed 140 pound belt. And now katie taylor won't give her a rematch. So I don't know whether eddie hearn just buried the footage like oh, we don't want you to see somebody who can beat katie at 140 pounds. Just, it's really odd that you can't find it anywhere, not on youtube. I just googled it, couldn't find it anywhere. Um, I did watch about 20 seconds of a guy put it up on his phone. I'm like, well, I can't, I can't watch this?
Speaker 2:That's too much to ask. But yeah, it was weird that Chantel Cameron you know, the former undisputed 140 pound champion. You couldn't even get a glimpse of what went on for her. But back to the fights. We could see Savannah Marshall versus Green. What was a green Shadasia, shadasia green. And this was a great fight too. Here's what I'll say about Savannah Marshall. She's very good, but she's a little too slow. If she's going up against anybody with just a little bit of speed, she's got to knock them out or the fight's going to be over. Because early on Savannah Marshall was looking better and then she got hurt. Then there was a lot of green rounds there in the middle. I thought Marshall did a little better after. She got her breath back and finished strong. But this definitely felt like a green win and I'm glad that it went that way. Early on there wasn't a lot of you know, a lot of action.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this, cause I was curious, curious, and this is one of those things like whenever we watch boxing together, you'll like mumble something or I'll mumble something, and then you start watching the fight a little bit differently. I wish somebody had been there watching live with me. So they took a point away from green for holding, because her arm kept going underneath savannah marshall's arm and so it was hard to tell who was the one holding. But the referee, very clearly.
Speaker 1:He warned her a couple of times and the second round and third round, warned her yeah, and then he said you do it again.
Speaker 1:I'm taking a point. And then she very, very clearly held and he took away a point and I was, you know, in the booth. They were mixed, uh, as far as what their opinions were, but I was like no, she deserved to take a, you know, she deserved to lose a point because the referee very clearly warned her. And then after that was when I noticed marshall was also holding a lot. And so then I'm like, well, shit, was she actually holding before? Like I didn't want to actually go back and re-watch it, but either way, both of them were holding a lot. And then it was almost like, you know, maybe he needs to start warning marshall. And then after the fight, marshall was like really unhappy with how the judges scored it, and so now people are talking rematch. I don't, I don't know that I need to see a rematch like it wasn't a bad fight, but it wasn't a great fight either. It was just it was too much holding.
Speaker 2:I didn't think that Marshall won yeah, so it's like I like that Colin Joe's dad was not having any of it. You know early on he's like you know what, and I, I liked that the way he even said it. He's like you're tying my hands, like I have no choice. I warned you, so I do like Colin Joe's dad, he's a good, he's a good referee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know it was that was. The only thing that felt weird for me was the whole handholding who was holding who thing. But yeah, I think the the ref did a great job. Also, what do you think Women's fights at three minutes? I'm kind of over the whole two minute thing.
Speaker 2:I'm split, you know, because I've seen shields right, didn't shields? Do no, serrano did a three minute fight okay and and that was great, but I don't know. I also kind of like the fact that title fight is over in 20 minutes yeah, I do love that, bro.
Speaker 2:Like all right, this is pretty great. It would depend. I. I would like to see it. But if they're packing more action into the two minutes, you know I'm fine with just leaving it at two minutes is this an age thing, fritz, where we just want it to be over quicker?
Speaker 2:get to the point. But then we get to the piece de resistance, the serrano versus taylor three. Here's what I'll tell you, frank, I thought that serrano definitely won the first one. Okay, she did not. She did not get the decision. I thought that Serrano won a close fight in the second one. She did not get the decision. I thought Katie Taylor legitimately won this fight. Okay, I thought Serrano took too long to engage. You know how I bitched before about a 10, 10 round. Oh, that first round, that first round, I scored at zero. I scored it 0-0. I'm like fuck, both of you. I'm like this is such garbage. I award you zero points and may God have mercy on your soul. I was like this is so awful. Nobody landed a punch. How were you supposed to score that one? 0-0 was how I had that one. I was like I wrote that down. I'm like it's, it's a zero, zero. Nobody gets anything for that one. We're all worse for having watched that. I'm glad that wasn't three rounds, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, three minutes. Three minutes of zero punches landing.
Speaker 2:I was like God, it was awful. But then I put down, I'm like all right, In round two Amanda Serrano finally landed a punch, so Serrano finally landed a punch, so she won that round. All right, it was like one punch to zero. I'm going to give it the 97, 93 kind of felt right I can't argue with with the result of this one. I thought that this was Katie's best showing and Amanda's worst showing. Yes, so yeah, you mix the those two things together and I can't argue for a second that Amanda Serrano won this fight. I don't think that this trilogy should be one, one and one, or Serrano, two wins and now Katie Taylor finally won a fight. But this will go down in history, to you know, just on box rec, as Katie Taylor three wins to nothing, and that's not really how history should remember this, but that's how it's going to go down. Franco.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's weird because this was such a big trilogy and the first fight was amazing. It was so great and I agree I thought Serrano took that first one, second one, still a good fight. I don't like that. Serrano's game plan was basically to stay further away because she doesn't have super long arms. She's not Luffy from one piece where she's just going to be stretching, or dalsim from street fighter, where she can just reach across the ring and and poop katie taylor on the nose or mr fantastic, yeah, yeah, yeah. And instead she looked more like like my cat when it's playing with the toy, like she was just swatting at air and not hitting anything.
Speaker 1:In that first round she threw I I think I saw on the CompuBox 5,000 punches and none of them landed Like that's what it felt like. It was two minutes worth of just punching air and at one point Katie Taylor threw a punch and it hit Serrano on the gloves and I was like that's good enough. At least she technically touched part of her. Maybe one of her pinky knuckles is a little bit sore from that, because otherwise there was absolutely nothing. Thank god that this fight picked up like they did start engaging a little bit more and then they finally started letting it go, but it was so late in the fight. But also I was on the edge of my seat, like even though this was the worst fight out of the three, and a lot of people were crapping on it, like on social media and stuff, I liked it. I was like on pins and needles, thinking at any point somebody is just going to step in and land a huge one. But also every punch counted.
Speaker 1:Like when something did land, it was like that's a big deal right there that could make or break this entire fight, counted. Like when something did land, it was like that's, that's a big deal right there that could make or break this entire fight. And but on the other hand, in the back of my mind I kept going back to that first round and I'm like shit, if this is close at the end, which one judge had it 95, 95 as a draw? And I'm thinking that first round, if anybody had landed a punch that could have made or broken them. Uh, thank god that, uh, the other two judges had it correctly. I thought 97, 93. I was totally happy with that. Otherwise, I think overall, like this is one of those things you have to look at the full trilogy, like these women did something that nobody had really done before by taking women's boxing and elevating it to a level that was so high where they sold out Madison Square Garden twice. It was awesome to see. I think both fighters totally deserve it. Both of them are hard workers.
Speaker 1:I love that Amanda Serrano came out with the Knicks dancing girls, but then she was wearing all Jordan gear. She had the Jordan ones in the, in the red and white, like head to toe. Everything was cool. The entrance was cool. She had some Puerto Rican singer sing for her and I was like you know, this is a missed opportunity. Bad Bunny should be coming out and walking her out to the ring to his new song, the Nueva Yol, the one that opens up the new album. And then that's the song that they played for her to come out to.
Speaker 1:And I was like that's perfect, like this is all perfect. They're in New York, they're bumping the new Bad Bunny song, like this was so great for her to lose at home. That kind of sucks, but that's okay. Like I think this is like Bird and Johnson, where it's two people that are awesome, going at it and elevating the entire sport. I just want more women to step up and kind of take the baton. Like we need more superstars and there's people in the works. We just need them to kind of stay focused, unlike the men and people like Berlanga that you, you know, just absorb it all in and they stop fighting and they lose that hunger. We, we need the women to stay focused, because the guys sure as hell are doing it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was. It was a good cap for the night, I agree with you that scotty versus mercado I agree with you was probably the fight of the night uh, fight of the weekend, like it was really just a great action. If you're into watching somebody land their hooks at will, it's definitely a fight worth watching. If you want to see a boxer that can land the jab up and down, I thought that's what green superpower was against marshall. She was landing the jab upstairs and then downstairs, upstairs and downstairs, right and left hand just touching her and marshall wasn't doing anything about it. It was nice to see a boxer listen to their corner. They're like you got to work that jab up and down and that's all she was doing.
Speaker 2:That one or that fight. I thought we got some fights coming up that I'm excited about. Franco, I am not going to pay to watch Manny Pacquiao come out of retirement, but I will watch the highlights of that, because Fundura versus Zoo is on that card, so I'll be watching that. My thing that I will plop down money for and watch with a giant grin on my face is Usyk versus Dubois too.
Speaker 1:I can't wait for that. Yeah, no, that's, that's the fight. That's the big fight. I don't know, Is there anybody? Oh, Coley's on that card. Is anybody else?
Speaker 2:you know what, even if it was just that fight, I would still pay for the full price of that fight all the balance, it's going to be great. So we'll be back to cover old man pacquiao. Uh, you know, probably getting his ass kicked because father time is undefeated. Everybody thinks that they can still do it from their chair. You know, just like, uh, ricky hatton announced he's coming out of retirement a guy that was knocked out by pacquiao. He's coming back for a four rounder or something.
Speaker 1:So I'm looking at that card for the pacquiao card. That's kind of a smart move, like there's some good fights on that card, like he's got actual, legitimate, not old people fighting on there. You know know. Isaac Cruz, sebastian Fedora, tim Zhu, mark McSayo I remember seeing him a while back Gary Russell Jr this isn't bad. It's not bad Good for him.
Speaker 2:Zhu versus Fedora. I want to see that and I'm sure that I'll be able to find a feed the next day, true, to watch the full fight. That one I'm certainly looking forward to the rest. That fight is, in terms of excitement, like that's easter, I'm looking forward to easter. Uh, usic versus dubois, that's christmas. Like I'm looking forward to that, like a kid look forward to christmas. So we had some fun stuff and we'll be back to talk to you about usic versus dubois.
Speaker 2:Break down all the stuff from that Pacquiao card and anything else that kind of comes our way. I've been paying attention, you know, to the, to the other fights and there wasn't a lot others that I had to take any notes on. I sat through a whole Montreal card that I was like huh, uh, I'm just going to tell Franco not to watch a second of this. Uh, cause, other than Corey Erdman being great at calling it, I Franco not to watch a second of this because, other than Corey Erdman being great at calling it, I was like I ain't got nothing Now, franco you're back in the hot seat.
Speaker 2:as my friend Moose in the morning would say, You're back in the hot seat with the trivia this week to deliver it. I'm in the hot seat. I got to answer something here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm ready. After getting it wrong for so many weeks in a row, I finally have our trivia question for you for it. All right, are you ready? I am, I'm ready. All right, here we go. So Katie Taylor, the Irish queen that has reigned over boxing recently, has beat all except for one of these people. All right, which one of these has she not beat out of these four? Jennifer Han, natasha Jonas, maggie Sawyer and Delphine Pursun.
Speaker 2:All right, so I watched Pursun and I watched Jonas. All right, so it's between Maggie Sawyer and what was my other option? And Jennifer Han, jennifer Hanifer han. I'm gonna say she does not beat jennifer han, that is incorrect for you, damn it.
Speaker 1:She did beat jennifer han. She has not beat maggie sawyer, who is, uh, one of the metropolis police members who handles crimes when superman is unavailable. Now you saw the movie right? I have not seen it yet, did you like it?
Speaker 2:so it's so great. I loved it. Yeah, it's. It's everything superman should be. It was a joy. I'm gonna see it again before it leaves the theater, like that's how great it was.
Speaker 2:And I even waited, you know, because there's been times where I'm like I just get out of the movie and I love the movie experience where you're sitting there, you got your popcorn, you got your one gallon of soda and you're taking it all in and I've left even like some crap movies where I was like, oh, that was fun, you know, and then I think about it for a couple of days. I'm like, oh, that was garbage. Why was I telling people to see face up with John travolta and nick cage? Uh, that wasn't a good movie, uh. But you know, sometimes I get wrapped up into that whole experience. So this one was so fun. I really, really loved it. 100 of the schmidt brothers uh, polled, uh really loved it. And uh, I just got a call from alex today. He really loved it. So it's uh, it's critically acclaimed. All three nathanael women uh, they're big fans.
Speaker 1:So it's absolutely wonderful, definitely go check that out Very high on our list to go and check it out. Usually we go and we see a couple of summer blockbusters and we've just been so busy this summer between my daughters and myself and everybody kind of doing a million different things. I think this might be one of the only movies that we get to go see in the movie theater, but I am so excited. So I'm glad that it wasn't just you, because Fritz has recommended movies in the past where then afterwards it's like I don't know that this Green Lantern movie is any good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got wrapped up in that one. I'm like oh, this was fun. Then a few days later I'm was it I don't think so um.
Speaker 2:So if anybody is interested in hearing me tell a story about a three-legged rat, check out my buddy chad daniel's podcast middle of somewhere uh, that dropped this morning. I get to retell the story of living in morgan park and fighting a three-legged rat. Nice, um. So go to you know, wherever you get your podcast, wherever you're listening to this podcast, just search up middle of somewhere, and I think it's even in the title the three-legged rat. So check that out. Come back and hear what we got to say about Dubois versus Usyk. You know, I do want to thank everybody. Thanks for listening, Thanks for subscribing, Thanks for telling your friends about this. You know Our numbers have gone up because you guys have been talking about it. It's just fun to do.
Speaker 2:People have said to me before like oh, do you talk about anything but boxing? I'm like no, but that's kind of the niche. If I wanted to do just a sports podcast or a fighting podcast, it wouldn't be genuine. We're talking about the thing that me and Franco genuinely love. It's stuff that we watch together and it's fun to just get together and play radio, as we say, and talk about boxing. So you know we're here for the people that do love boxing. So thanks for thanks for listening and thanks for you know subscribing. I appreciate it. I appreciate Franco. He does all the real work here. I just put on my headphones and I yammer away Franco does the real work, gets it out to you, gets it in your earbuds and I appreciate that. Yeah, If you don't have anything else, Franco, I'm throwing in the towel.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to Punches and Punchlines. Make sure to like, subscribe and follow and we'll see you next week when we break down the best in boxing with a sense of humor.